Council wants larger Chch

Press, 16 August 1988, Page 8

Council wants larger Chch

Christchurch City could extend from north of Kaiapoi to Mount Herbert if the boundaries for a metropolitan council proposed by the Christchurch City Council in its submission to the Local Government Commission are adopted.

The submission endorsed by the council at a meeting yesterday extended the boundaries of the original one-city plan, north of the Waimakariri River. The new Christchurch City would be created from the union of Christchurch, Waimairi, Riccarton, Heathcote, Lyttelton, Mount Herbert, Kaiapoi, urban Paparua and its environs and adjacent areas of Rangiora and Eyre County. The updated submission had to be forwarded to the commission before September 1 as the commission intends to issue indicative schemes for

both regional and territorial reorganisation during September or in early October. The Mayor, Sir Hamish Hay, said he believed the submission indicated planning was moving slowly and surely in the right direction. The council noted that details, such as the election of the proposed wards, would require careful attention by the transition committee and that close consultation with the other local authorities should continue. While Cr David Close commended the submission for achieving decen-

tralisation without fragmentation, Cr Clive Cotton expressed concern at some of the boundary divisions. Several communities were cut in half by using main roads as divisions and it seemed community interests had taken a back seat to the “numbers” game, Cr Cotton said. Cr John Burns said people should not think of the larger one-city proposal as a take-over by one council. The submission was a blueprint for the next 50 years and councillors should accept it as that and deal with the adjustments later, he said.